Section 5 Notice
under LOT No 169 for 281 propertiesSection 8 Orders under LOT No 24 for 230
propertiesSection 8 Orders under LOT No 25 for 26 propertiesSection 7
Notice under LOT No 13 for 178 properties

LOT 168 Section 5 for 284
properties which we sent out last week isrepeated this week.

Herewith
as a matter of urgency todays listings of section 7 notices whichresponding
to urgently within five days by lawyers.

Take notice that an application for the confirmation of the acquisitionorder
issues in respect of the following farms has been filed in theAdministrative
Court at Harare and that the Respondent and any holder ofreal rights over
the said farm are required to lodge their objectionswithin 5 days after the
publication of this notice failure of which thematter shall be set down
unopposed without any further notice.

A copy of this application is
available for collection at applicantsundersigned legal practitoner of
records address between monday to friday 8am to 4 pm

HARARE - Armoured troop carriers yesterday patrolled several
Harare suburbs as the army was summoned to help suppress swelling public
anger against an ongoing government onslaught against informal traders and
homeless people.

As soldiers descended on suburbs such as Glen
Norah, Glen View and Mbare, where police fought running battles with
informal traders in the last week, sources told ZimOnline that the police -
who have led the evictions - were under orders to use live ammunition
against civilians attempting to resist.

It could not be
established whether the army was also under instruction to shoot at
civilians with live ammunition.

According to the sources, Harare
police commander Edmore Veterai, on Thursday told about 2 000 police
officers at Morris police depot in the city that they should not fear
shooting with live ammunition at people resisting eviction because the
campaign against informal traders had the blessings of President Robert
Mugabe.

THE police have been ordered to use live ammunition to
suppress resistance in Harare suburbs

Veterai, who was
addressing the policemen before dispatching them on the so-called "clean-up"
campaign, is said to have told the officers: "Why are you letting the people
toss you around when you are the police? From tomorrow, I need reports on my
desk saying that we have shot people. The President (Mugabe) has given his
full support for this operation so there is nothing to fear.

"You should treat this operation as a war. Those people fighting back need
to be taught bitter lessons because that is the only way to avoid further
confrontation."

Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, who
oversees urban councils, said security forces were out to restore order and
would crush any attempted hooliganism or resistance by
residents.

He said: "We are simply restoring order. Yes we expected
some resistance but the security forces are on hand to crush any
hooliganism. It is these people who have been making the country
ungovernable by their criminal activities actually."

But police
spokesman Oliver Mandipaka denied that the army had been called in to help
clamp down on rising public anger in the suburbs. "That (army involvement)
is an absolute lie. The army only comes when the situation gets out of hand.
As things stand there is absolutely nothing which warrants us to call in the
army.

"We are moving on with the exercise until the city is clean,"
Mandipaka said before switching off his phone. It was not possible to
ascertain from Mandipaka whether the police were under orders to use live
ammunition.

However, a ZimOnline news crew that toured Glen
Norah saw armoured cars carrying heavily armed soldiers patrolling the
suburb, where hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods were destroyed
when the police set fire to informal household furniture-making shops in the
area.

In Glen View suburb, adjacent to Glen Norah, residents said
the soldiers did not harass anyone but claimed that the armed troops had
threatened them with unspecified action if goods looted from shops during
riots there earlier this week were not returned.

"The soldiers
were not beating up people as they used to do in the past, but their
presence was intimidating enough . . . they also said they will be coming
back to deal with us if goods which were stolen from OK supermarket were not
returned," said one resident, who did not want to be named.

Meanwhile, the police yesterday widened the crackdown against informal
traders and homeless people to include squatter settlements on Harare's
borders.

Police razed to the ground hundreds of homes at
WhiteCliff Farm, about 20 km west of Harare, where pro-ruling ZANU PF party
veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970's independence war illegally settled at the
height of farm invasions.

About 10 000 residents including war
veterans and their families watched in shock offering no resistance to the
police who were armed to the teeth.

The police also dismantled
dwellings in Hatcliff extension when more than 20 000 families lived after
being placed there by the government in the 90s.

At the old
Epworth squatter camp established years before independence in 1980, police
fought running battles with mostly youths from the area trying to stop the
police from demolishing homes there. At least six people were seriously
injured in the clashes that were still ongoing by late last
night.

More than 18 000 people have been arrested so far in the
clean-up operation which is also being carried out in other cities across
the country. - ZimOnline

Former finance minister blames Mugabe links for loss of top
banking jobSat 28 May 2005 HARARE - Former Zimbabwe finance minister
Simba Makoni yesterday publicly admitted for the first time that his links
with President Robert Mugabe cost him the Africa Development Bank (ADB)
presidency last week.

Makoni, who many on the continent and beyond
said was the best candidate for the job, told a press conference in Harare
that he had been warned weeks before the polls to select the ADB president
that the United States (US) and European countries with a stake in the bank
would oppose his bid because he is Zimbabwean.

The Zimbabwean,
who bowed out of the race in the third round, said: "Even before the
election, a number of Western diplomats in this country had warned that they
would not support me because of my Zimbabwean connections . . . Some
(Western countries) told me in my face that because I come from Zimbabwe,
they would not support me."

Western countries control 40 percent of
the ADB with African and Arab nations holding the remaining 60
percent.

The US and European Union countries have lobbied against
Mugabe and officials of his government and ruling ZANU PF party at many
international fora as part of punitive measures since 2002 to punish Harare
for failure to uphold democracy, the rule of law, human and property
rights.

Mugabe rejects the West's allegations against his
government accusing Washington and Brussels of targeting his government for
victimisation as punishment for seizing land from white farmers for
redistribution to landless blacks.

ZANU PF spokesman Nathan
Shamuyarira said the party, to which Makoni is a member, was disappointed
that the he had lost "because of some people who chose politics instead of
the right person." Makoni, a respected businessman, was sacked by Mugabe as
finance minister in 2003 over fiscal policy differences but retained his
position in the Politburo, ZANU PF's central decision-making
organ.

The ADB will be led by an interim president after the bank's
board of governors could not agree between Rwandese, Donald Kaberuka, who
had the backing of Western countries and Nigerian, Olabisi Ongunjobi. -
ZimOnline

New Zimbabwean radio station opens in New YorkSat 28 May
2005 JOHANNESBURG - Former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings disc jockeys,
purged in a government crackdown five years ago, have set up a new radio
station in New York, United States.

The new radio station,
Southern Africa FM, broadcasts on the internet news and music from southern
Africa targeting the diaspora audience.

The new radio station
becomes the fourth station to be set up outside the country since the
government began a crackdown against independent media voices five years
ago. The other radio stations are: Studio Seven, a Voice of America
initiative, SW Radio Africa and Afro-Sounds FM which broadcast from
London.

Former ZBC disc jockeys Chaka Ngwenya, Brenda Moyo and
Plaxedes Jeremiah are part of the team at Southern Africa FM.

There are no independent radio stations in Zimbabwe. Attempts to break the
state media monopoly on radio broadcasting in the last few years have
virtually failed as the government dragged its feet in opening up the
airwaves.

President Robert Mugabe's government has shut down
four newspapers including the country's top selling daily, The Daily News,
in the last three years as the authorities stepped up a campaign against
divergent voices.

The government has also refused to repeal harsh
media laws blamed for stifling the operations of private players in the
media sector forcing journalists to set up private radio stations outside
the country. - ZimOnline

Two of South Africa's foremost constitutional lawyers will
appear in Zimbabwe's Supreme Court to mount a constitutional challenge
against the continued incarceration of former opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) Member of Parliament Roy Bennett.

Due
to appear before Zimbabwe's highest court in Harare on Bennett's behalf are
advocates Mathew Chaskalson SC and Jeremy Gauntlett SC.

They will
try to help Bennet barely a year after George Bizos saved MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai from going to the gallows on charges that he plotted to murder
President Robert Mugabe.

Roy Bennett is serving a 12-month sentence
with hard labour after he pushed Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a
heated debate on the land issue last year.

Plan now for when Mugabe is gone, says Hill Patrick
Leeman May 27 2005 at 10:27AM

Neither the United
States government nor the countries of the European Union appear to have a
comprehensive plan for the reconstruction of Zimbabwe after President Robert
Mugabe is no longer in power.

This was said in Durban on Thursday
night by Geoff Hill, the Africa correspondent for the Washington Times. He
has just published a book entitled What Happens After Mugabe - Can Zimbabwe
Rise From The Ashes?

Speaking at the launch of the book, Hill said
Mugabe was now 81 - there were fewer days ahead of him than behind
him.

However, no one seemed to know what to do when change did come
to Zimbabwe. There had been similar vacuums when the Taliban-controlled
government of Afghanistan was toppled and when the Saddam Hussein regime was
overthrown in Iraq.

The author said there were only two
foreign journalists left in Zimbabwe, and those working for the state radio
and television services were "propagandists".

Hill said there
were three million Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa alone. A radio school
could be set up in Johannesburg where many of these people could be trained
to become broadcasters in the Zimbabwe of the future.

Qualified
nurses were in short supply in Zimbabwe because many had emigrated because
of the deteriorating health conditions.

A database could be set up
now to determine the number of Zimbabwean-born nurses worldwide, or others
who could be trained to take over in a new dispensation.

The
Zimbabwean police had previously enjoyed a very good reputation, but in the
recent past they had been "hopelessly politicised" in favour of
Zanu-PF.

A properly-trained police force, which was impartial,
would be essential in a new Zimbabwe, the correspondent said.

Zimbabwe would need to establish a truth and reconciliation or justice
commission and embark on a process of reconciliation.

He cited
the success of the peace moves in Rwanda after the genocide of
1994.

. This article was originally published on page 7
of The Mercury on May 27, 2005

By Staff
ReporterLast updated: 05/28/2005 01:14:46A ZIMBABWE court on Friday
sentenced the country's registrar general to a two-month suspended jail term
for defying a series of court orders to surrender ballot boxes used in
disputed presidential elections held two years ago.

Tobaiwa Mudede
was sentenced to two months in jail by Justice Yunus Omerjee, and fined
Z$5-million (R3 690) for failing to obey court orders issued over the past
two years.

However, the judge suspended the prison sentence for 10 days
"on condition that [Mudede] complies with the order of this honourable
court".

Mudede appeared on Friday to have capitulated to the court
demands, with government lorries seen outside the High Court offloading
ballot boxes from the 2002 polls. They are being stored at a room at the
court.

Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) is challenging President Robert Mugabe's victory in presidential
elections held in March 2002, which Tsvangirai lost by about 400 000
votes.

The opposition leader claims the vote was rigged, and his lawyers
have been battling to have the ballot boxes and packets containing the
papers delivered to the court so they can investigate them.

Mudede,
whom the MDC accuses of being a Mugabe loyalist responsible for rigging
three consecutive elections, denies he was deliberately defying the court
orders and said his office did not have the resources to comply. --
Sapa-DPA

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Police torched
dwellings in a poor squatter camp overnight and deployed more than 3,000
officers Friday to "monitor" the destruction of informal settlements around the
capital.Residents rioted Thursday night in at least one township on the
southern edge of Harare as police arrested street vendors and burned their
kiosks.While police used gasoline and torches to destroy shacks in one
township, state radio said desperately poor residents in other areas hurriedly
tore down their own shacks, taking away building materials they had bought with
their life savings.Police are under orders to destroy "illegal dwellings"
and vendors' shacks as part of a campaign to clean up the city. About half of
the city's urban poor live in the shacks. About 10,000 street vendors have been
arrested since the crackdown began eight days ago.The opposition says the
campaign, which has triggered rioting, is a government ploy to justify declaring
a state of emergency."We are on high alert. We really do not know where they
(police) are striking next," said Lovemore Muchingedzi, an opposition Movement
for Democratic Change party worker in the Glen Norah township where there was
extensive rioting Thursday night."Police went around beating up anyone they
came across. They made sure there was no electricity in the area and under cover
of darkness they were beating everyone up," said Muchingedzi, who said the area
had quieted by daybreak.Trudy Stevenson, an opposition legislator for the
area that includes the Hatcliffe squatter camp in northern Harare, said people
there called her when three truckloads of armed police arrived late Thursday
night."They told me they were burning everything but I better not come as I
might get shot in the darkness," she said.Opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai alleges the blitz, called "Operation Marambatsvina" (drive out trash)
is aimed at provoking unrest which will force urban opposition voters to return
to the countryside and the justify declaration of a state of emergency ahead of
nationwide economic collapse.A state of emergency would give the government
of President Robert Mugabe, 81, unlimited powers of search, seizure, detention
and censorship as the country goes into a food crisis with up to 4 million
people needing food aid.James Morris, head of the World Food Program and
representative of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, is due here next week to
discuss the relief effort with Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980
independence.Before recent parliamentary elections in which he claimed to
have won a landslide victory, Mugabe refused assistance saying the country had
had a "bumper harvest." His Zanu-PF party was alleged to have used access to
food to intimidate rural voters.Harare's government-appointed mayor, Sekesai
Makwavarara, announced Tuesday that illegal settlements and houses would be
destroyed in three months. The government has not explained why police have
already begun the destructions.State radio raid the roundup of street
traders and demolition of "informal housing" was discussed at a meeting Thursday
of Mugabe's elite 40-member policy-making body, the Politburo, in advance of a
Zanu-PF central committee session Friday.

By Rita
BhebheLast updated: 05/27/2005 23:49:58I HAVE been reading media reports
that SW Radio Africa is going to shut down if pledges by donors are not
honoured.

This honestly cannot be allowed to happen. The fact that Robert
Mugabe's regime invested over £30 million in two Chinese built transmitters
at Thornhill Airbase to block their broadcasts into Zimbabwe speaks volumes
about their effectiveness. It is testimony to how threatened they felt over
the station's uncensored, free-flowing broadcasts.

We now have two
dedicated internet radio sations in Affro Sounds and the recently launched
SAR FM in New York but to be honest, Robert Mugabe will not lose sleep over
these. Why? They are targetting fairly rich middle class people in the
diaspora who can afford computers and broadband connections. If you are
already in the diaspora you can't vote or demonstrate in Zimbabwe and Mugabe
will not worry over your activities. Power in our country now resides in the
rural areas. These are giving by hook or crook the majority of votes for
Mugabe's tattered legitimacy in elections. We have a serious rural-urban
divide that needs bridging and the internet is certainly out of
tangent.

This is what makes SW Radio Africa clearly effective. Their
Shortwave transmissions are reaching people in the rural areas and really
fostering a change of allegiance in the mentality of the rural people.
Mugabe always does his home work, and reports were filtering in that the
station founded in September 2001 has in the past four years been steadily
penetrating the rural areas while simultaneously updating the urban dwellers
on daily breaking news. If as is being predicted, the station is closed
down, what hope does Zimbabwe have? What is the use of funding NGO's,
newspapers and internet radio stations that target an already informed
audience who are already supporting the opposition anyway?

With two
jamming devices installed by Mugabe, SW Radio Africa has to broadcast on at
least three or more frequencies to reach Zimbabweans. This, broadcasting
fundis will tell you is a very costly exercise requiring close to hundreds
of thousands of pounds. Although I understand they can still broadcast on
Medium Wave which is not currently being jammed, I am assuming their money
has already been exhausted by the multiple frequency broadcasts courtesy of
the Chinese intervention. I call on all the donors who are involved in
helping Zimbabwe to please stand up and support effective projects. Mugabe
has already shown us this project is effective so why are they not pushing
saving it?

Is the world admitting China is now the superpower and
spreading its repressive tentacles around the world? Where are the so-called
super powers in this? How do you spread democracy by misdirecting resources?
Are we so blind to see what is needed? I was just thinking today how we
could change things if every Zimbabwean in the diaspora donated one US
dollar to the station. In our millions, we could have the station run on for
another year. I suggest the station has to open up such an account and see
how we will respond. I am personally prepared to put up 50 US dollars as the
opening donation and challege everyone in the diaspora to
respond.

The diaspora just has to lead the way for Zimbabweans back home.
Broadcasting is the key to power back home, this is why Mugabe has viciously
defended ZBC's monopoly for 25 years. It just has to be broken by an
independent Zimbabwean radio station. We in our wisdom or lack of it are
letting slip one of the few remaining voices capable of delivering change.
The irony of it all is that SW Radio Africa wins the Free Media Pioneer
Award 2005 from the International Press Instititute (IPI) and then closes a
few days later. Are we being serious? How the mandarins in Zimbabwe will
celebrate! I say no, this is a serious development in our fight for
democracy.Bhebhe is in the Media Studies Department at the John Moore
University in LiverpoolTO LISTEN TO SW RADIO AFRICA: http://www.swradioafrica.com

WOZA CALL ZIMBABWEANS TO ACTION SATURDAY
18 JUNE 2005 - A DAY TO RESTORE OURDIGNITY.

WOMEN of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA) deplores the ongoing treatment by theZimbabwe Republic Police of
citizens attempting to eke out a living byinformal trade. With unemployment
at over 70%, most Zimbabweans have triedto survive by becoming fulltime or
part time vendors. Many members of WOZA,widowed mothers, grandmothers and
youth fit into this category and have beenaffected by this mindless clamp
down. We sympathise with their loss oflivelihood but call on them to remain
determined to free themselves fromthis cruel tyranny.

In a statement
issued on the 4th April, WOZA called for Zimbabweans to makea choice between
Mass Action or Mass Starvation but it has become importantas mothers of the
nation to remind Zimbabweans what type of Mass Actioncould bring pressure to
bear and yield our better enjoyment of basicfreedoms.

We call on our
sisters and brothers who are fighting to defend theirlivelihood to use
peaceful means of mass action as a way to safeguard theirdignity. Mugabe and
his regime have 'degrees in violence'; striking back orhitting back will not
work, as violence only begets violence.

The Mass action referred to by
the women of WOZA is a nationalist version ofcivil disobedience or
resistance which we call 'Tough Love'. We promote theconcept of loving your
country and fellow citizens enough to sacrificeyourself and suffer the
consequences. We sacrifice by acting to show thatlaws or treatment by
government are unjust and suffer the consequences ofbeing beaten, tortured
or imprisoned. Mahatma Ghandi once said, "The willingsacrifice of the
innocent is the most powerful answer to the insolenttyranny that has yet
been conceived by God or man." Martin Luther King said,"Just men cannot
follow unjust laws."

The women of WOZA are inviting Zimbabweans to join
them in peaceful proteston Saturday, 18 June 2005, ahead of UN World Refugee
Day on 20 June. We haveespecially selected this day, as Zimbabweans are
living the lives ofrefugees in their own country especially so if they
cannot even earn a basicliving by the honest trade of a vendor.

We
invite Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to organise protests outside
theirZimbabwean Embassies to highlight the plight of their kith and kin
backhome. We know that as we make this call the 'slaves of POSA', will begin
tohunt us down to deter us from organising this peaceful expression
againstthe indignities we are made to suffer at their hands. But we are
reminded ofthe sacrifice of a great African Statesman, Nelson Mandela, who
led SouthAfricans in a spirit of 'Amadelakufa' (Self sacrifice for the
nations good).

To the leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change,
and otherpoliticians who care about the living standards of Zimbabweans, we
have asimple message. Provide leadership to the Zimbabweans on the
street,participate in teaching principles and methods of peaceful
resistance, planand organise to join us on the 18 June, when we restore our
nations DIGNITY.

To Zimbabweans: face facts Freedom is not for free. Stop
criticising whatleadership you do have; if they are peaceful and are ready
to do battle with'Tough Love', be they male, female, rich or poor, black or
white, play yourpart and you will find yourself blessed with the courage to
act.

I went out to Hatcliffe Extension this
morning. It is like a bomb site! People are sitting beside their worldly
belongings, some still trying to take down their shacks before the police
get to them - everyone is looking dazed. The ZRP officer commanding told me
proudly there are 3000 police in there, so no wonder the people don't fight
back! Those without a place to go in Harare will be shipped out to a farm
beyond Tafara (Caledon?) but noone can take their cabin panels, bricks etc -
and the police don't know if there is any accommodation at the farm - I
doubt it!! Disaster - and this is a proper site and service scheme, and
people had paid 300 000 per stand last year for their lease documents, they
were legally there!!

I have spent the
afternoon trying to get some humanitarian assistance for the Hatcliffe
Extension residents who are now without shelter for the second night and
will soon be without food, when they move away from their small kitchen
gardens, chickens etc. I am shocked to report that so far, I have not been
able to identify a single NGO or other organisation prepared to help, apart
from one church - Thank you God for your churches!

International Red
Cross reports they only deal with war situations. Zimbabwe Red Cross person
in charge of humanitarian assitance forgot cellphone this morning.
Zimrights says this is a nation-wide problem, too big for them... and so
on.

Please, friends - we need help for about 500 families. We need
plastic for shelter and some emergency foodpacks, delivered either directly
to residents at Hatcliffe Extension New Stands (opposite SIRDC) or to
Northside Community Church - attention Destitute Care - or to my home at 4
Ashbrittle Crescent, Emerald Hill. We doubtless also need blankets and
jerseys, since it is much colder if you do not have proper
shelter.

Trucks, socks
and even soft drink cans are being pressed into service by Zimbabwean gold
smugglers desperate to avoid trading their treasure for worthless currency
at rock-bottom rates.

One man's favourite method involves
putting his gold dust into an opened Coke can. When he arrives at Beit
Bridge, he puts the can to one side and allows customs officers to search
his car and pockets. A pair of brothers hides paper-wrapped packets in their
shoes. In the mountains of Chimanimani, locals claim that the convoys of
pickup trucks speeding down an otherwise deserted road carry sacks of sand
and gold in their trailers.

"See those?" gestures a man
towards the vehicles, some of which bear government registrations. "They are
going down to the diggings by the river. They will be back this way in a
couple of hours and heading for the border with
Mozambique."

Local people are surprisingly open about the
illegal activities taking place in their midst. The small-scale smugglers
may escape official notice but, for any serious operators, Zimbabwean
officials insist on a cut.

On the plush lawns of the polo
club bar in Bulawayo, government involvement in gold smuggling is an open
secret. "I reckon about 80% of gold that is being mined here is being
smuggled out of the country," said one mine owner who did not want to be
named. "And everyone knows [Zanu-PF] is at the bottom of most of
it."

Other miners dispute the percentage of gold smuggled out
of the country but figures from London-based metals and minerals consultants
GFMS show wide fluctuations in the amount of gold mined. From a high of
nearly 30 tons in 1999, official production fell to about 12,6 tons in 2003.
The next year it was up to 21,3 tons.

"The swing occurs
when the official buying price doesn't match what the gold is actually
worth," explained Bruce Alway, a senior metals analyst at
GFMS.

"A lot of gold is undeclared by producing mines and
ends up leaving the country through the back door."

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of small and medium-scale mines
is booming as other sources of employment shrink. Terry Alberry, who owns a
business in Bulawayo that supplies mining equipment, says that his customers
have increased tenfold in the past seven years.

However, many
mine owners fear that the newly re-elected Zanu-PF government is planning a
blitz on the mining industry similar to the land redistribution programme
that destroyed the agricultural sector five years ago. The ensuing violence
also drove away the lucrative tourist trade. Five years later, a quarter of
the population has fled the country and there are riots in the streets when
hungry citizens spot a rare bag of sugar on supermarket
shelves.

One white farmer turned miner complained, "Today the
ruling party commandeered my tractor, driver and fuel. We do not dare object
to it. They want to process ore for free. Now they're coming to us and
saying we must sign over 51% of our mine to previously disadvantaged
citizens."

The former cattle farmer, his face still scarred
from the beatings he received, went into mining in 2003, after he was shot
and threatened with decapitation. Now, like many other former farmers who
have invested in the mining sector, he is watching his business, which
employs 100 men, crumbling before his eyes.

"The
government forces us to sell all the gold to the Reserve Bank. The parallel
[black market rates] are about 15 000 to 1, but we are being forced to sell
at 5 000 to 1," he said.

Despite losing one business, and
the threat of losing a second, this miner is one of the lucky
ones.

"Before the economy crashed I worked in a shop," said
42-year-old John Salburi. "We dig on the road because it is already clear of
bush. I am just trying to pay some school fees." Some weeks he does not even
make enough to feed his wife and two children. Now he sleeps outside near
his diggings under a plastic sheet spread between some trees and returns to
the city with money for his wife when he can.

Scattered
among the tiny artisinal mines are large illegal mining camps with powerful
backers, usually rumoured to be high in the echelons of Zanu-PF. One such
site in Chimanimani, in the east of the country, has piles of neatly stacked
shovels and wheelbarrows, prefabricated buildings and heavy earthmoving
equipment. Gouges several metres deep have been dug into the road in both
directions to discourage any unauthorised vehicle
traffic.

The uncontrolled excavations are devastating the
environment. Less than a mile from a broken-down digger left to rust on the
road, giant trees lie scattered over muddy pits. The miners believe that
gold collects around the roots of the trees, and dig around the base until
the tree collapses. The deforestation and digging increase the flow of silt
into streams and rivers, blocking them, and unregulated businesses washing
ore to remove the gold are dumping cheap cyanide into the same water
sources.

With inflation in the triple digits, and four out of
five people without jobs, the devastation and corruption dogging the mining
sector look set to kill the golden goose.

Zimbabwe
says nearly three million are in need of food aidHarare (dpa) - Zimbabwe's
government has revised initial estimates of those in need of food aid
upwards to nearly three million, but says the figure could be higher, a
newspaper report said Friday.

The state-controlled Herald quoted Sydney
Mhishi, a director in the ministry of social welfare, as saying 2.8 million
people had been identified as needing food aid this year.

The
government has set aside 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars (11 million U.S.
dollars) to buy food, Mhishi said.

``The number of people needing
assistance is expected to rise from last year's figures due to the fact that
this year has been another abnormal one in terms of rainfall,'' he
said.

Mhishi said that the government did not have ``actual statistics''
for people requiring food aid as teams were still gathering the
information.

The Herald reported him as saying demand was increasing by
the day. Aid agencies say at least five million out of Zimbabwe's 11.6
million people will require food aid this year.

James Morris, the
head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) is due in Zimbabwe next week to
assess the country's food aid requirements.

President Robert Mugabe's
government, keen to stem criticism of its controversial land reform
programme that aid agencies say is partly to blame for recurrent food
shortages in the country, previously said just 1.5 million people needed
food aid this year.

Anger flares in high density areasBY MWANA
WEVHUHARARE - People whose taps run, whose dustman calls every day, whose
air is clean and fresh and whose lights and household gadgetry go on at the
flick of a switch can readily understand the despair boiling up to rage of
dwellers in crowded urban high density areas - who go for weeks without any
of these essentials of modern living.In Tafara and Mabvuku, the poorest
people have long endured a low standard of living as a direct consequence of
local government's incompetence, corruption and neglect. But at least they
could find fuel for their cookers, water to wash their dishes, bathe
themselves and keep their streets free of refuse and the stink of human
waste. That was in another time.

Now the outlook is bleak, and what was a
daily struggle has become an impossible nightmare. They have started to make
spontaneous protests, to throw stones and wield sticks and run amok. The
resulting damage to property has brought a fierce response by the forces of
law and order.

It affects us all, no matter how careful we may have been
to steer clear of politics, or how 'nicodemously' we carried a party card of
one side or the other (or both) as a shield and protector. The proudest
housewife, reveling in the admiration or envy of her neighbors and the love
and respect of her family, has been reduced to the level of an inhabitant of
a squatter camp. Even refugees in Dafur and other African hellholes get
occasional help with water and elementary sanitation services brought to
them by strangers.

As if this suffering was not enough, the people now
face the terrible consequences of their wholly understandable expression of
anger and frustration. They are entrapped by the Public Order And Security
Act (POSA). They probably didn't know just how draconian this law is,
because it has hitherto been applied mostly to people like civic minded NGOs
or journalists or cheeky lawyers.

When high-density dwellers finally
overcame any fear of the all-pervasive police and took whatever action they
thought would bring their plight to the attention of the authorities, they
could not have known how utterly cynical and cold the final response would
be. A harsh reminder of the prospect for those deemed to be leaders of the
recent disturbances in the townships is Section 17 of POSA, which has this
to say about Public Violence:

(1) Any person who, acting in concert with
one or more other persons, forcibly:

(a) disturbs the peace, security
or order of the public or any section of the public; or

(b) invades
the rights of other people;

intending such disturbance or invasion or
realising that there is a risk or possibility that such disturbance or
invasion may occur, shall be guilty of public violence and liable to a fine
not exceeding $100,000 or imprisonmentfor a period not exceeding 10 years or
both.

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), a predominantly
voluntary group of public-spirited people, is the leading organization
showing concern for the plight of the people. It has made a call
for:

The suspension of increased rates and charges,an end to the
imposed Makwavarara Commission,the restoration of a democratically-elected
Executive Mayor and Council, and dialogue between residents and Municipal
officials to seek a way forward.

CHRA has stated that it did not organize
the demonstrations or participate in any way but it recognizes and supports
the inalienable right of citizens to protest against injustice. "CHRA
salutes those residents who have the courage to stand up to this brutal and
repressive regime. Their example should encourage residents in other areas
to take action to demand acceptable service delivery."

There remains,
of course, the inevitable political spin-off of all this mayhem. There has
been far too much interference in civic matters by the ruling Zanu (PF)
party and now that the majority of Harare's voters have rejected that party,
it would seem that they will be left to stew in their own juice.

The
added cruelty of the law is just another jab in the already bleeding side of
normally law-abiding people. History abounds with examples of whole
populations exploding with anger and bringing their tormentors to regret
their actions. CHRA's appeal may well prove to be the last bid for a
peaceful resolution of a highly inflammatory situation.

Zimbabwean exiles appeal to UNLONDON - Exiles in
Britain gathered outside the Zimbabwe Embassy on Wednesday to call on the
United Nations to intervene in Zimbabwe to prevent catastrophe.Organised
by the UK arm of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), the demonstration drew attention to the complicity of
Zimbabwe's neighbours in maintaining President Mugabe in power by their
endorsement of the rigged elections in March.

The organisers said
they had chosen to demonstrate on Africa Day as this was a day of great
symbolic importance, marking the establishment of the Organisation of
African Unity (now the African Union) in 1963. Africa Day is observed
throughout the African continent.

HARARE - Former Zimbabwean lawmaker Roy Bennett and the
country's only political prisoner is being held in such deplorable
conditions in Zimbabwe's notorious Chikurubi Prison that the once-burly
commercial farmer is hardly recognizable, according to reports from Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).He has lost 26kgs in the past six months
and is in extremely poor health says ZLHR, which has taken Bennett's case up
with the African Commission on Human and People's Rights. A ruling is
expected shortly.

The lawyers' contention before the commission is that
Bennett has not been tried and sentenced by a competent court of law - but
was jailed by members of Parliament sitting as a court dominated by his
opponents from the ruling Zanu (PF) party.

He was sentenced to 12
months imprisonment with hard labour after he pushed the minister of
Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, during an altercation in Parliament in which
Bennett's ancestors had been slandered as "thieves" by the
minister.

Other ruling party MPs who joined in the fray, and kicked
Bennett, were not apprehended or even rebuked by the Speaker who convened
the court on Bennett and issued certificates barring him from appealing to a
competent court of law.

Recently, Bennett was moved from Mutoko
Prison, 170 miles from Harare, to the maximum security Chikurubi Prison on
the outskirts of Harare - which is generally reserved for hard-core
criminals. No reason for the move was given either to him, his family or his
lawyers.

Mistreatment of Bennett catalogued by his lawyers includes being
denied blankets in mid-winter, poked in the eye by prison guards, generally
being physically and verbally abused, denied a change of clothes and clean
water to wash as well as proper food for several days on end. Inmates seen
talking to Bennett, or offering him their blankets, have been harassed by
the guards.

Meanwhile government agents have been digging all over
his farm in search of arms caches so that they can have a proper case to pin
on him. This raises the real apprehension that the Zimbabwe government is
trying to find an excuse to continue to harass Bennett as his prison term
nears its end.

ZLHR says appeals to the Supreme Court concerning inhuman
treatment of political prisoners in the past have effectively fallen on deaf
ears as the court simply reserves judgment for years on end - during which
time the person concerned continues to suffer.

Unethical HuntingCHINHOYI - Dendales, formerly Eden
Hunt Safaris, is a 16 000 hectare game farm, 40 km from Chihoyi on the
Sanyati Road which is home to about 100 elephant and a large number of
plains game of varying species. The owner, Charles Ridley was evicted and
the ranch was taken over by a relative of a prominent Zanu (PF) cabinet
minister.According to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, the new settler
of Dendales is now selling hunts on the property and hunters are invited to
shoot as much as they want. "No hunting quota has been issued and three
professional hunters have already been there and shot two elephants and a
substantial number of plains game. We have the names of these hunters on
record if anybody is interested. A simple phone call is all that is required
to hunt there," said the report.

Cost of dictatorship too highJOHANNESBURG - "Why is
this Tony Blair coming to our country to contest elections? He is the one
causing all this trouble." So effective had been the anti-Blair campaign of
the Zimbabwe government in the March 31st election that poor MaMoyo believed
that Tony Blair was in Zimbabwe physically participating in the
elections.MaMoyo's mistaken belief was not based on ignorance or lack of
intelligence but was a result of five years of sustained propaganda from the
state coupled with the almost total denial of media voices to the rural
populace of Zimbabwe.

Analysts seeking to explain the staying power
of the Mugabe regime agree that Robert Mugabe's greatest success has been to
divert attention from internal repression by invoking anti-imperialist
solidarity.

In a recent article published in the Review of African
Political Economy, Professors Brian Raftopoulos and Ian Phimister noted:
"The land question in particular has been located within a discourse of
legitimate redress for colonial injustice, language which has resonated on
the African continent, and within the Third World more
generally."

Thus the government-owned Herald is able to dismiss
international concern about human rights, democracy, press freedom and the
independence of the judiciary as 'a smokescreen to maintain the colonial
grip (of Britain) on Zimbabwe'.

The consequence of this, argue
Raftopoulos and Phimister, is that "when opponents of Zanu (PF) have
expressed their criticism of the regime through the language of human rights
and democracy, they have struggled to make their voices heard above the
clamour of anti-imperialism. Their protests have either been grotesquely
misrepresented or simply ignored."

Debates within the South African media
are a case in point. The South African president, cabinet ministers and ANC
leaders - especially the ANC Youth League - have buttressed Mugabe's
ideological position by launching stinging attacks on conservative white
Western critiques of the Mugabe regime and conspicuously downplaying or
ignoring critical African voices.

A case in point is the response to the
report on the situation in Zimbabwe by the African Union's Commission of
Human and People's Rights has been all but ignored by the South African
government.

Based on a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe in the wake of
the controversial 2002 presidential election in Zimbabwe, the AU Human
Rights report was compiled by distinguished and respected individuals,
including Professor Barney Pityana, a liberation movement veteran, former
chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission and current Vice
Chancellor of the University of South Africa (UNISA). It is ludicrous to
dismiss someone of Pityana's stature as a "puppet of Western imperialism" so
the AU report is simply ignored.

Also ignored was the Zimbabwe
government's exclusion of some of the most experienced African electoral
observers in the March 31 elections. Not one government in the region
protested against the exclusion of the Electoral Institute of Southern
Africa (EISA) and the SADC Parliamentary Forum.

If the democratic
movement in Zimbabwe wants to make any headway in breaking the Mugabe
regime's ideological stranglehold within the region, it has to highlight the
appropriation of an anti-imperialist discourse to serve narrow political
interests.

It has to invoke African instruments such as the Constitutive
Act of the African Union and the African Charter for Human and People's
Rights. It also has to make a shift away from Zimbabwean exceptionalism and
locate Zimbabwe within African debates on elections, democracy and
governance.

For example we should have had extensive Zimbabwean
commentary on the recent elections in Togo, the crisis in the Ivory Coast
and the attempts to restore peace in the DRC and rebuild the state in
Somalia.

There is a lesson for Zimbabweans to learn from all these
experience - the cost of decades of dictatorship is high and recovery is
sometimes well nigh impossible. Let us try to resuscitate the patient before
it is too late.

BY ChéHARARE - There was
an article the other day in the Herald about politically motivated arrests
of some 30 people in the DRC. Like many Zimbabweans, I glossed over the
article and moved on in search of "more interesting news."I did not organize
a picket of the DRC embassy, nor did I fire off a quick letter to Amnesty
International or the DRC ambassador. I didn't even mention it to colleagues
at work by the water cooler. Nope! It was just another bit of boring
statistical news in the paper.

This is precisely the problem Zimbabwe
faces. We are just another news item for the average South African, Tswana,
Zambian and Namibian. The Mozambicans, Angolans and Malawians do not even
read the full article on alleged retribution attacks by one political party
against another's supporters.

They have enough survival problems of
their own. How Zimbabweans can expect Thabo Mbeki and heir apparent
Dhlamini-Zuma to come to their rescue baffles me. We seem to think our
crisis warrants more attention than Darfur, Palestine and Iraq put together!
My, we are a spoilt lot!

Spoilt because our middle class has too much to
lose and so will not go into the streets in a mass peaceful protest. Spoilt
because we do not have a culture of activism at all. We do not know the
meaning of justice, equality, the right to stand up for our vote and reclaim
it. We do not even have the time to express our public outrage when a
general hand sexually abuses 14 children in a primary school.

We are
activists for the day and only when the issue is our wages! The 1997 food
riots had more to do with our stomachs than our outrage at political
injustice. We understand injustice but cannot stand up for justice. Others
fought the war for us and unfortunately those who fought for us are on the
side of the oppressor - so we have no one left to fight our
battles.

We love press conferences and symposiums in ornate hotel
conference rooms - but we do not act on our word. The more conferences with
the same audience of students looking for a piece of action, the better it
is for our annual donor report. That done, we take off to another conference
in London, Brixton, Geneva and Johannesburg.

The first question we
ask is what the per diem amounts to. The next is where the nearest shopping
mall is before turning to matters at home. We then rattle off a few
statistics about the situation back home, call for Mbeki to do something
about it and then head for the mall before it closes for the
night.

Yet we never walk the talk. We never announce a day of mass
protest because we are unsure of our leadership capacity and because we do
not want to "lose lives". A night of prayer is the best we can muster! Are
we cowards?

Do we lack the necessary belief in our own freedom to the
extent that we expect Mbeki and Dhlamini-Zuma to deliver it on our behalf?
Have we danced the kwasa kwasa tune to such an extent that our spines have
become too supple to stand up straight?

What did Zambians do when
Chiluba went for a third term? Call Mbeki? What did ordinary South Africans
do when Mbeki ignored AIDS? Call Obasanjo?Indeed what did the people of
Madagascar do when their vote was stolen? Call Mauritius?

Fellow
Zimbabweans, we are the laughing stock of every opposition party and
oppressed people in the world. For the amount of publicity we received over
a minor problem compared to Sudan, Sierra Leone, Côte D'Ivoire and the DRC,
we have surely messed up and spurned the opportunity to take our destiny
into our own hands once and for all.

All we can do now is wait for
someone to die in office. Shame. And woe to us all if the next guy or woman
is worse. Perhaps then we can switch tactics and pray for the second coming
to be brought forward?

Who will stand? Who believes strongly enough in
the principles of justice and equality to stand and lead in the opposition,
in civic society and who believes strongly enough in the same things to
stand and follow those who will lead?

This week the Reserve Bank Governor devalued our
dollar by a paltry third of its value, adjusted the projected inflation
figures upwards and told us exactly how bad things have got in the country.
For two and half hours the Reserve Bank governor's presentation was
broadcast live on national television.

The following day a question
and answer breakfast meeting was also broadcast live. Gideon Gono described
utter chaos while his audience of ministers, bankers and businessmen laughed
in the right places, sipped their fruit juice or pure bottled water and
feasted on a huge breakfast.

The Governor spoke about resettled farms,
where people who are supposed to be farmers are cutting down productive
orchards to sell the firewood, selling timber plantations to foreigners for
US dollars and chopping out mature coffee plantations in order to plant a
few maize pips.

He spoke of farmers stripping assets, destroying
infrastructure and making immovable property moveable in order to sell it.
He said that farmers were selling anything and everything that is left on
the farms they were given. He spoke of massive environmental degradation and
a rape of the land so widespread that there would soon be nothing left for
Zimbabwean children to inherit.

Gono talked about people leaving the
country by air, with suitcases literally bulging with US dollars. He said
others were crossing the border by road with foreign currency stuffed into
false fuel tanks under their cars and of unauthorized private aircraft
coming in to collect smuggled gold.

Almost every sentence contained words
like corruption, indiscipline, hoarding and abuse. He spoke about greed that
knows no bounds. But I fear his words and impassioned pleas to save the
environment and natural resources will fall on deaf ears because, frankly,
no one gives a damn any more.

Many of us have been crying out about
environmental destruction for the last five years but we have been silenced,
called colonialists, racists, imperialists and sell-outs. The facts,
however, are there for all to see - Zimbabwe's natural resources are being
looted, the environment is being destroyed and the pace quickens every
day.

The people who have the power to stop it - ministers, politicians
and government officials - continue to do absolutely nothing. They do
nothing about stream-bank cultivation, ploughing, planting and well-digging
on delicate wetlands. They do nothing about fish netting, bird snaring and
animal hunting and poaching. They do nothing about widespread felling of
decades-old indigenous trees.

We can only assume that the silence and
inaction of our authorities means that they do not want or expect their
children to spend their lives in Zimbabwe. If they did, surely, they would
do something. Until next week, Ndini shamwari yenyu.

Farms for freeEDITOR - I read with interest that the
Zimbabwe government is considering offering farms free of charge to Chinese
would-be farmers in the hope that they can restore productivity after
learning the techniques. This comes after the failure of Libya to do
so.Why on earth don't they give them 'back' to the owners who already know
how to farm more efficiently than anyone else and save themselves any claims
for compensation?

There is simply no foodEDITOR - Traveling back from
Beatrice to Harare last night, I stopped on the road to phone my children to
warn them I would be late home. While I was busy an elderly gentleman was
walking past and stopped to ask if I was all right or needed help. His eyes
were sunken and his cheekbones protruding from his face. He had no fat or
flesh cover and looked much older than he really was.We started
chatting. He was an ex-farm worker living with relatives down the road as he
had no job and no food. He was concerned that there was nothing for him or
his family to eat for the future and no prospect of getting any job. Once I
was through with my call he cheerfully waved me off and continued with his
walk.

There is no food out in the rural areas. My family in Matabeleland
South eat only after 9pm so that they are not observed . They brew mahewu to
drink surreptitiously during the day and when we sent maize to them last
week, they quickly buried it underground in a hut so that they could not be
seen with food.

We continue to be told that no one will starve but
the only people who are able to get food are the well connected.

The facts about KaribaEDITOR - I refer to your article
"Kariba Dam Wall" published in The Zimbabwean issue of May 6th 2005. The
sentence "The word on the street is that due to the government's lack of
interest and/money, no maintenance work has been done on it for something
like three years" is quite misleading. The implication is that "the
government, presumably referring to the Zimbabwean government, has not been
maintaining the dam wall.The facts are:

1. The Kariba dam wall is
jointly owned by the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

2. The
maintenance of the wall and monitoring of hydrology and water quality and
water abstraction from the lake are a responsibility of the Zambezi River
Authority (ZRA).

3. ZRA is an intergovernmental organisation formed by
treaty between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

4. ZRA answers to an
Inter-ministerial Council composed of relevant Ministers from both
countries.

5.The generation of electricity from Lake Kariba was devolved
to the energy supply authorities of the respective countries, Zambia
Electricity Supply Commission (ZESCO) in Zambia and Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority (ZESA) in Zimbabwe. The maintenance of the power stations
on the north and south banks units are the responsibility of the respective
generating authorities.

There is thus no single government
responsible for the maintenance of the dam wall. So if you need information
on the condition and maintenance status of the Kariba Dam wall I suggest you
contact ZRA. They have a website. www.zaraho.org.zm

All disowned commercial farmersEDITOR - The
Compensation Coalition is a grouping of a number of organizations that
currently represent in one form or another in excess of 3000 of the
Zimbabwean Farmers who have been dispossessed of their Farms, their Homes
and their Livelihood, that has taken place since the year 2000 to the
current date, under the guise of the Land Reform programme.The Compensation
Coalition believes that for the benefit of Zimbabwe as an Independent
Sovereign State, and to enable Zimbabwe to be recognized and appreciated
throughout the world it is fundamentally important that the issue of
compensation for the losses incurred by those dispossessed, needs to be
justly and fairly resolved.

It is easy to understand that if those who
have been dispossessed in such a manner, are not accorded the correct
compensation, how can any would be investor into Zimbabwe be assured they
would not suffer the same dispossession of their investments in the future,
bearing in mind even Zimbabwean citizens in many cases as farmers for a
number of generations have not as yet been fairly
compensated.

Farmers who themselves were encouraged by our government,
and who responded accordingly - to increase production, improve farming
methods, implement better housing schemes, build schooling facilities,
construct dams, canals and storage works to enhance irrigation, upgrade the
genetics of the livestock and poultry industries, open up the horticultural
industry; build our nation's tobacco output to be the world's second largest
exporter of quality Virginia tobacco, provide sufficient cereals to ensure
not only enough to feed the nation but allow for a surplus. Farmers who
produced yields and results as good as, and in many cases better than, their
fellow farmers around the globe, have had their enterprises acquired, homes
lost, and livelihood removed.

It is the prerogative of any government
to do what it believes to be in the best interest of the nation, and in a
method that it believes will yield the best results. The future and its
people will record whether or not any given decision will be judged as
successful or otherwise. It really is also incumbent on that same government
to ensure that fairness is achieved to all its people while undertaking what
it believes to be to the benefit of the state.

The Compensation
Coalition states the following:

1/. Those offered compensation currently
are being given a verbal quote as to the values of such compensation. This
is not the procedure as required under the act. Nor is any indication
provided as to how the values have been arrived at.

2/. Payment in
Zimbabwe dollars, under the current hyper-inflation is an amount with no
known real value. For example a house in Harare selling for 3-4 million
dollars just 5 years ago can be selling now for in excess of 2 Billion
dollars.

3/. Payment in Zimbabwe Dollars over a number of years, as is
being proposed verbally to some, will render that value the same fate as has
happened to peoples Life insurance policies, savings, pensions etc. The cost
of a stamp now in some cases has exceeded the value of some Life insurance
policies taken out in good faith by pensioners when they were young working
individuals, taking out insurance which they believed would assist their old
age benefits.

4/. Title is recognized world wide, and is accepted as
ownership in places like Mozambique, even some 35 years later. The same
applies to many places that were once part of the communist block in Eastern
Europe, in excess of 50 years ago. If you opt to take compensation and
relinquish your title deeds, you lose any further claims to that
property.

5/. Compensation consists of many parts. Firstly compensation
for the fixed assets that were on the property at the time the owner was
dispossessed. Secondly the land itself (which the Zimbabwe Government states
it will not compensate for). Thirdly there is the loss of income that the
business provided to the owner and fourthly there is what is known as
disturbance compensation or consequential loss.

6/. Compensation
offered so far to individual farmers appears to only consider fixed assets,
and at a value of only about 10 to 15 % of the value derived at by the
members of the Valuators Consortium who are all registered Real Estate
Valuators in Zimbabwe.

7/. Values for the other forms of compensation
mentioned in 5/. above vary from individual to individual, and are not as
easy to quantify and need to be negotiated by individuals, considering each
individual case.

8/. While there is a divergence of views between our
government in Zimbabwe and many in the international community (Britain in
particular) as to who should pay the compensation and for the land, it is a
sad fact that the dispossessed farmers are suffering as a result of this
dispute over which they have no control. If our government does not have the
funds to pay the correct compensation, the payment of the wrong compensation
will only serve to increase the concern that new would be investors in
Zimbabwe would have regarding the security of any projects they may wish to
enter into.

9/. Every farmer who has had his property acquired is in a
different situation. Some no longer reside in Zimbabwe, some still wish to
return to farming, as that is the profession in which they are trained, some
are now old and have no wish to return. Some are near destitute having lost
all their savings and their home, some have been successful in relocating to
neighbouring countries, and some have made new businesses away from
agriculture. Therefore the issue of compensation, its amount, and the method
of payment impacts differently on each and every individual dependant on
their own particular situation. Some have indeed been stretched so far they
have in reality lost the ability to negotiate and are prepared to take
whatever crumbs are offered.

10/. Think carefully and deeply in all
issues regarding compensation, especially if you believe it not to be fair.
Seek advice from the Valuators consortium, your farming representative body,
or any other organization or establishment that represents
you.

Continuing the
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe report on violence and
human rights violations in Matabeleland in the 1980s. This report makes
chilling reading. Please be warned that those of a nervous disposition might
find it distressing.In December 1983 in the Mgulatshani area, eight named
men and women and many others were detained by a ZNA unit (not 5 Brigade).
Some were demobbed ZIPRAs and they were tortured by the CIO and given
electric shocks to the testicles at Kezi Air Strip. One of those detained in
1983 was detained again in May 1984 at Bhalagwe.

Along with other
ex-ZIPRA members, he was held for four months and tortured regularly. Many
of the ZIPRA members simply disappeared during this time while others were
threatened with ending up 'down mine shafts'.

In January 1984 Zanu (PF)
officials addressed a rally at Mbembeswana in central Matobo. People were
forced to attend and were trucked in from all over the region, including St
Joseph's.

On the way home from this rally an army puma crashed, killing
six school children from St Joseph's Mission and injuring 104 others, some
very seriously. The CCJPZ report comments that The Chronicle reports the
incident, but gets the location of the accident wrong.

In February
1984 villagers in the area were rounded up to the 5 Brigade camp near St
Joseph's and then to Bhalagwe. (Tshipisane village was mentioned, among
other unnamed villages). Victims, both men and women, refer to being beaten
with 'logs' and thorn branches and being tortured into making false
confessions.

There is also reference to women having sharp sticks
pushed into their vaginas. A man found herding donkeys west of the mission
was beaten by 5 Brigade for 'curfew breaking' and taken to Bhalagwe where he
was tortured and detained for three months.

Also in February 1984 an
elderly woman who ran a grinding mill was severely beaten by 5 Brigade at
Bidi Store - for breaking the curfew and the food embargo. The next day her
female co-workers were also beaten and forced to open the store so that
members of 5 Brigade could drink there.Two villagers (a Zapu branch
secretary and one other) were severely beaten by 5 Brigade in the bush, and
were hospitalised for 3 months. A woman, her brother and two others were
removed from their homes to Bhalagwe, and beaten.

The woman also had
sharp objects forced into her vagina, along with further beatings. An old
man and another man reported being severely beaten for 'parenting
dissidents' and were taken to Bhalagwe for several months.

In the Mzola
Dam area a group of at least 8 elderly men were severely beaten by 5 Brigade
for eating at eleven in the morning. They were forced to do strenuous
exercise while being beaten throughout the day.

One was then released,
while the others were kept overnight, transferred to Guardian Angel and then
Mabisi Dip. Torture continued and several of the men collapsed completely
and one was finally beaten to death.

In April 1984 a man found driving a
car at Bidi Shopping Centre was accused of being a senior Zapu official and
was beaten. His wife and child were beaten and his car was shot full of
holes.

He was then detained at Bhalagwe for three months and was tortured
by the CIO. In November of the same year in Mtsuli village nine members of 5
Brigade severely beat a man in front of others and kicked him in the
diaphragm until he vomited blood.

On February 11, 1985 a man from
Bidi was among many abducted throughout Matabeleland in nightly raids by
CIO. By November 1985, he had not been located. Two other named men went
missing in this area in February 1985.

In May 1987 dissidents accused
people in Mtsuli village of being sell-outs. They severely beat two men. The
incident was reported to ZRP and the two dissidents were later
shot.

Next week - an overall look at the human rights violations in all
the areas covered.

Witness account of Police brutalityBY FRANK
CHIKOWOREHARARE - Exactly 15 days after Zimbabwe joined the rest of the
globe in Commemorating the United Nations World Press Freedom Day on May 3,
and less than two months after the nation celebrated 25 years of
"independence and democracy," the Harare administration saw it fit to
torture me for practicing my profession.My crime: filming police details
while they raided flea market vendors in Harare's central business district.
But in its lead story, the Herald newspaper carried a big picture of vendors
who had been rounded up by the police. Some police details are in the
picture. I am told that State television covered the raids as well on the
day I was arrested. How partisan could the police be?

If the cops
knew they were doing the correct thing by beating citizens who were trying
to live an honest life by vending, why would they assault me and hundreds of
the vendors? If they were right, why would they be afraid of being filmed?
Now we are toldthe blitz is expanding countrywide.

But let me go back
to the illegal raids. They were made around 1700 hours when the nation was
closing for the day's business. The timing speaks volumes. After vendors had
spent the whole day selling their goods to public, the police saw it fit to
confiscate their property so that they would be made to pay admission of
guilty fines at Harare CentralStation.

When I was in custody, I could
hear some police details claiming that three quarters of the raided goods
went missing. It would not surprise me to hear that police had taken the
property for their own personal use.

My arrest while on duty - in
possession of a government license (press accreditation card) as required by
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) -was not
warranted.

Police details used their baton sticks, clenched fists and
guns to assault me. I thought that was the end of me. I turned to God for
the first time in my life. But my prayers did not stop the police officers -
from the Juliet Troop of Chikurubi Support Unit - hitting me with the butts
of their guns.

I could hear one of them shout: "We want to do more than
what we did to your friends Ray Choto and Mark Chavhunduka. And to make
matters worse, you are a freelance journalist. Sellout. I thought you were
from the Herald!"

The beatings only stopped after about 25 minutes (while
handcuffed) when members of the public were screaming "leave the boy; he
will die now if you continue beating him". I was no longer feeling the pain.
I was thinking of death at the hands of the police.

Frank's detailed
account of his ordeal will be continued next week.

* "It's outrageous
that Zimbabwean authorities would lock up someone who was simply filming the
activities of police in a public place," said Ann Cooper, executive director
of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "We demand the immediate and
unconditional release of Frank Chikowore and an end to this kind of
abuse."

HARARE - The Zimbabwe
Conservation Task Force has reported that the Harare drinking water which
comes from Lake Chivero is not fit for human consumption because raw
sewerage is being pumped into the lake."Since the onset of the land reform
programme, the people who previously worked on farms in the rural areas have
moved into the main centres in search of employment and the sewerage system
can no longer efficiently cope with the waste of the increased
population.

"The raw sewerage now goes directly into Lake Chivero. This
has been the case for the past few years but the problem is now critical
reports of people being hospitalized for stomach ailments are becoming more
and more frequent. There is a terrible stench of human excrement emanating
from the water," said spokesman Johnny Rodrigues.

"I contacted the
Harare branch of the World Health Organization who passed me from one person
to another. In the end, I was told that they couldn't do anything about it
and I should contact the Government Water Resources Task Force but I
couldn't get through to them. I then tried the Municipality who were not
interested. In desperation, I contacted the media and took a team of
journalists and photographers out to the lake. The story and photos were
published last week in one of our local newspapers.

"We would like to
urge Harare residents to boil all their drinking water because there doesn't
seem to be any solution to this problem at the moment," he
said.

Meanwhile the task force has reported that its report about
poaching in Lake Chivero has been acted upon by National Parks. "They did a
raid and 15 poachers were arrested and were fined Z$2.5 million each. A
large quantity of nets and several boats which had been utilized in their
poaching operations were recovered," said Rodrigues

Government will descend on errant service stations,
which are deliberately diverting fuel from the formal market to the black
market where it is sold at exorbitant prices.

The Permanent Secretary
for Energy and Power Development, Mr Justice Mupamhanga, said yesterday
Government would take action against all parallel market
dealers.

"All defaulters will be brought to book. It's something we have
been doing and we have never stopped. But at this time we have intensified
the programme so that the situation is put under control," said Mr
Mupamhanga.

Fuel has continued to be in short supply during the last two
months but the commodity is readily available on the parallel market at
exorbitant prices.

For instance, petrol is being sold at prices ranging
between $30 000 and $60 000 per litre.

"We are working with the
police," said sources who could not be named. "Although at this stage the
campaign has started in Harare where police are also working to flush out
illegal dealings, the programme (to rid the fuel sector of unscrupulous
dealers) will also be implemented countrywide and it is expected to be
completed in a month's time."

It was discovered that no informal traders
have been accessing fuel from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim)
depots, but instead, were getting supplies from the service stations that
would have bought the commodity from the parastatal.

The fuel station
operators are said to be working in cahoots with illegal fuel
dealers.

At some service stations, half of the fuel supplied would be
sold at the official price while the rest found its way on to the black
market.

Some individual fuel importers have also been cited as the major
culprits.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on Tuesday announced that it had
released US$18,5 million to Noczim for importing fuel with the first tranche
expected tomorrow, a development which is likely to see improvements in the
fuel supplies.

"It should be understood that the clampdown on the
errant service station operators is meant to kill the black market. People
should not expect to see an improvement in the fuel supplies after the
campaign but we are saying no to black market," said one source.

It
was indicated that all fuel loopholes, which have contributed to the
shortages of the commodity and black market, would be dealt with to ensure
that sanity prevails.

Zimbabwe has not been receiving constant
supplies of fuel due to shortage of foreign currency.

THE trial of the now defunct Daily News reporter,
Kelvin Hamunyare Jakachira, who is facing allegations of contravening the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), has been set
for August 4 this year.

Jakachira (31) of number 10 Marlborough Court
in Mutare yesterday appeared before Harare magistrate Ms Marehwanazvo Gofa
who announced the trial date.

Allegations against Jakachira are that he
practiced as an unaccredited journalist between January 1, 2003 and
September 13 the same year.

The State alleges that on June 15 2002, the
Government published a Statutory Instrument to the effect that all
journalists working in the country should be registered and accredited by
the Media and Information Commi-ssion as envisaged in AIPPA.

The
Statutory Instrument had a grace period of up to December 31, 2002.

In
October the same year, the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists organised a
conference to map out the procedure and requirements for
accreditation.

On January 1 2003, Jakachira was not yet registered with
the MIC as required by the law but he continued to practice as a journalist
in the country.

Jakachira, the State alleges, only stopped practising
without accreditation on September 13 after the Supreme Court ruled that the
Daily News was an illegal publisher.

The State argues that
Jakachira's actions were in contravention of section 83 (1) of
AIPPA.

SEVERAL filling stations took delivery of petrol and
diesel yesterday following efforts by Government and the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe to alleviate the fuel crisis.

As queues formed at the few
service stations which received supplies yesterday, tankers could be seen
queuing at the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim)'s Msasa
depot.

Security guards manning the depot's entrance confirmed that the
tankers had been moving fuel since morning.

Long, winding queues
stretching for at least 600 metres could be seen on roads leading to several
filling stations such as Engen along Fourth Street and Total along Samora
Machel Avenue in the city centre, where motorists were sitting in their
vehicles as they awaited their turn to fill up.

At Ford Service Station
along Chiremba Road in Chadcombe police and soldiers had to be summoned to
control the queue after some motorists threatened to burn down the filling
station alleging favouritism in the selling of the fuel.

Even with
the police presence, the motorists were threatening to beat up anyone who
dared to jump the queue.

At one filling station Mr Roy Nyashanu, waiting
in the queue, accused the owner of tricking them into believing that the
fuel supplies had run out.

"He told us that the fuel had dried up. But
when told him that we were going to contact The Herald to expose his black
market dealings, he promptly ordered the attendants to pump the fuel into
the vehicles in the queue.

"At times when you come here, you are told
there is no fuel only - to your total surprise - to see the same garage
selling fuel to apparently favoured motorists during late hours at night,"
he said. The owner of the filling station refused to comment on the
allegations.

A service station at Warren Park shopping centre also took
delivery of fuel. However, motorists had to fork out $200 000 for five
litres of petrol instead of the regulated pump price of $18 000.

In
areas such as Tynwald, Belvedere and Dzivaresekwa, motorists had formed long
queues at filling stations in anticipation of fuel deliveries.

The fuel
crisis, which had hit hard public transport operations in Harare,
subsequently spread to other parts of the country.

As a result,
hundreds of commuters in Harare and other affected areas had to walk long
distances to and from work because of transport shortage resulting from the
fuel crisis.

The positive effects of the resumption of deliveries had not
yet filtered down as the transport situation remained tight yesterday
despite it being a holiday.

Many people in the high-density suburbs
who intended to get into town in the morning were stranded while those
wishing to return home from the city had to wait for long hours for
transport.

Some commuters from suburbs close to the city like Hillside,
Arcadia and Braeside could be seen walking to town along Robert Mugabe and
Seke roads.

Ruwa commuters' difficulties were further compounded by the
fact that both road and rail transport services were erratic.

By
yesterday morning, there was only a single Zupco bus transporting people to
the city from the satellite town.

Mr Emmanuel Manyau, a University of
Zimbabwe student, who commutes to and from the campus on a daily basis,
lamented over the problem.

"Transport blues are affecting our studies as
we are getting to college late for the end of semester examinations," he
said.

Since Monday this week, many people were increasingly making use of
commuter trains although their availability was reportedly
erratic.

Efforts to contact the spokesperson at the National Railways of
Zimbabwe were fruitless as the Harare officials refused to comment referring
the Press to their headquarters at the Bulawayo office, which could not be
reached.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on Tuesday announced that it
had released US$18,5 million to Noczim for the procurement of fuel with the
first tranche made available on Friday.

However, there is normally a
time delay between payment and delivery of fuel as requisite arrangements
have to made and it takes time for the fuel pumped from the port city of
Beira in neighbouring Mozambique to reach Zimbabwe and be
distributed.

Secretary for Energy and Power Development Mr Justin
Mupamhanga told The Herald that he was confident that the situation would
improve soon.

"We are working hand in glove with the RBZ. It's not just
about the money, but also the logistics in the supply chain. The process is
a bit long, but efforts are being made to plug all the gaps," he
said.

Mr Mupamhanga also stressed that the current fuel shortages needed
to be viewed in a broader light, pointing out that "you cannot isolate fuel
procurement from the challenges the economy is facing".